Wayne Rooney will travel with England to the World Cup despite being told that he will be unable to resume full training before June 14 at the earliest, four days after his country's opening match.
A scan on the Manchester United forward's broken foot confirmed the initial prognosis that, provided he suffers no fresh setbacks, he will need around six weeks to recover from the time that he suffered the injury, playing against Chelsea on April 24.
But United said on Friday that England's most important player would only be given a green light to play in Germany if a full recovery was confirmed by another scan the club has scheduled for June 14, in Manchester.
If that goes well, Rooney could still be available to play for England in the knockout stages of the tournament and head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson confirmed that he would take the player to Germany on that basis.
Rooney will continue to work on his rehabilitation with United's medical staff until June 5, when he will fly out with the rest of the squad to Germany before returning for the second scan nine days later.
The Swede added: "I spoke to Sir Alex Ferguson today and we had a really good conversation. Despite all the speculation, there has been a very positive dialogue with Manchester United all along.
United boss Ferguson, who has been sceptical about Rooney's chances of making the tournament, made it clear he would not sanction his player taking part if there was the slightest risk of him breaking down in Germany.
Ferguson's comments and a statement from United contradicted optimistic reports that Rooney could be training by the time England face Paraguay in their opening match on June 10.
Although Ferguson recently described the chances of Rooney playing in the World Cup as a "wild dream," the United boss is also aware that his star player would be distraught at missing out after suffering an almost identical injury to the one that ended his involvement in Euro 2004.
That was the tournament at which Rooney announced himself to the world as a precociously talented 18-year-old before limping out in the early stages of England's quarter-final defeat by Portugal.
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